ARTIST: Jacob Monk
PUBLISHER: Published by Jacob Monk, Baltimore.
MEDIUM: Large engraved wall map backed on original linen.
DATE: 1854
EDITION SIZE: Image size 56 1/4 x 59" (140.3 x 150 cm)
DESCRIPTION: A fine map showing the development of United States from coast to coast at an important time for trans-Mississippi development under the political limitations of set by the Great Compromise of 1850.<br><br> The Compromise of 1850 was made up of five bills that attempted to resolve disputes over slavery in new territories added to the United States. It admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be a slave state or a free state, defined a new Texas-New Mexico boundary, and made it easier for slaveowners to recover runways under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.<br><br> Monk’s wall map was published between 1851-1863. This 1854 edition was one of two, or possibly three variants published during the year.<br><br> In 1854 Stephen Douglas, Senator of Illinois, presented a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, an area covering the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, and the Dakotas, now known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Over the course of the year new information became available and Monk would update the map accordingly. This edition shows the newly completed Gasden purchase. New Mexico extends from California to Texas and an extra-wide Utah reaching from California to Kansas. Kansas is spelled Kanzas, and Washington and Oregon extending eastward to the Nebraska Territory. Nebraska Territory itself is shown at its fullest extent from Kansas to the border with British America (Canada). Interestingly, Oklahoma is divided up among three American Indian Nations, the Chah-Lah-Kee, the Muscogee, and the Chah-Ta. Also named throughout are numerous other Native American tribes. br><br> One difference this author can see is that the engraved titles of a number of the territories in some, presumably earlier editions, are in outline where on this map they have been filled in, making them bolder and easier to see.<br><br> In the lower left is an inset map of the world. Two keys are on the map. One gives the names of counties and country towns and the other gives a table of distances, one by land, the other by water.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
CONDITION: Overall in good condition for a varnished wall map of the period. Some repaired splits and minor stains. Removed from roller rods.
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